1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a detent apparatus for water temperature regulation of induction faucets and particularly to an apparatus for induction faucets to manually adjust water discharge temperature that has two detent limits to confine swiveling of a water temperature regulation means and can be formed easily.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The water discharge controllers of automatic induction faucets now available on the market commonly adopt a magnetic switch (solenoid valve) to control water discharge and amount by automatically detecting the presence of users without touching or depressing a handle. Such types of faucets are more sanitary and also can save water consumption. However, such a feature also makes control of water temperature by mixing cold and hot water more difficult than the conventional faucets. Hence they mostly aim to deliver cold water.
On the other hand, in some special occasions such as laboratories, hospitals and the like regulating water temperature is necessary. To meet this requirement an automatic induction faucet capable of regulating water discharge temperature has been developed. It mainly includes an induction device to control opening and closing of a solenoid valve so that cold and hot water can be mixer and discharged automatically through a control switch at a desired temperature. That kind of automatic induction faucet for regulating water temperature has a single solenoid valve to do flow control. In the event that the solenoid valve malfunctions, the discharging water temperature varies. Moreover, once the regulating water temperature is set, it is fixed and cannot be altered or fine-tuned by users to meet onsite requirements.
There is another type of induction faucet to regulate water temperature. It has a handle or rotary knob outside the faucet like the conventional single handle water temperature adjusting faucet to adjust water temperature. The handle is coupled with a water intake valve inside the faucet and can control the ratio of water intake of cold and hot water so that they are mixer to reach a desired water temperature. Then a conventional induction water discharge mode is adopted to control water delivery through a solenoid valve. It is less likely to malfunction and can adjust water temperature according to user's requirement, thus is more convenient. However, the temperature regulation mechanism takes a lot of space in the faucet. As the conventional manual faucet does not have sufficient space to accommodate the automatic water temperature regulation mechanism, it requires a special design to do installation, such as including a detent means to limit swiveling of the handle on two ends to regulate the cold and hot water. Such a design involves a more complex mechanism and incurs a higher cost. Repairs and maintenance also are more difficult.